Tao Te Ching - Verse 1 - The Nameless

1 The Tao that can be told
is not the universal Tao.
That name that can be named
is not the universal name.

Words are merely a representation of meaning, but the representation is never as clear as the meaning itself. The biggest disadvantage to applying constraint to the Tao through words is that by explaining everything it is, we are also explaining what it is not. The two are truly inseparable. Therefore, we must begin to let go of notions of what it “is” or “isn’t.”

In the infancy of the Universe,
There were no names.
Naming fragments the mystery of life
into ten thousand things and their manifestations.

Naming things is conventional to communicate, but it also begins to separate that which is boundary-less into boundaries. Know that by using words, you are choosing to only merely represent such fragments of life. When you choose to use words, you must understand that it will never be the truth, only an abstraction from it.

So how can one live by truth? Lao Tzu will uncover this in many ways throughout the Tao Te Ching. However, the answer, at this moment in time, seems relatively paradoxical. You simply do not live by truth. You let go of all notions of what you may think it is and sink into the moment – which is the only visible truth. You see, the moment is you.

We have learned to grow up with names, and boundaries to our identity. This, person right here, is you. But where does the you stop and everything else begin? Is it at your fingertips? Is it at the end of sensation? Is it your brain? These are things we will discuss further at some point – or not!

Yet mysteries and manifestations
spring from the same source:
The Great Integrity
which is the mystery within manifestation
the naming of the unnamed
and the un-naming of the named.

So by naming those of which are boundary-full and by default, un-naming those which have no boundaries, we create a divide. Yet, in this divide, both of the named and unnamed are recognized as being from the same source – the wholeness of everything (The Tao). Lao Tzu encourages us to partake in the dance of life by identifying with not only what we think we are, but what we actually are – it all.

When these interpenetrations
are in full attendance,
we will pass the gates of naming notions
in our journey toward transcendence.

Continuing the previous point, when we begin to construct naming conventions with diligence, we then become in full attendance of everything we are excluding. Then who are we to decide what the limits of those things are? Is the tree separate from the water that nourishes it? Then how can it be without it? How can it be without the soil that gives it its roots and helps it weather the storm, much like our legs.

By letting go of these notions of “I” and “it,” and recognizing that we are all the Tao, we begin to have a truthful transition into bliss.

All verses were explicated from Lao Tzu – Tao Te Ching by Ralph Alan Dale